Legal Question in Entertainment Law in Virginia

Re: Use of names/situations from copyrighted music

The protection does cover the distinctive words a writer uses to present ideas or facts, but control over the underlying concepts or truths cannot be owned. Thus, a biography about a JFK qualifies for copyright, but the events and facts of his life do not.

To qualify for copyright protection, the work must be (a) original, (b) creative to a minimal degree, and (c) in a fixed or tangible form of expression.

There are four general exceptions,1) public domain -- work belonging to the public as a whole, 2) works with an expired copyright or no existing protection, and works published over 75 years ago; and 3)prior approval for the proposed use by the copyright owner, 4)legal exception -- use constitutes an exemption to copyright protection and 5)fair use, use for educational purposes according to certain restrictions.

Disclaimer. Any information or response to an your inquiry should not be relied upon and is not legal advice, unless such information or response explicitly states it may be relied upon and further explicitly states Dunlap & Grubb has agreed to enter into an attorney client relationship with you. For information or help with your case please call 703-777-7319 or go to www.dglegal.com for full disclaimer.

Re: Use of names/situations from copyrighted music

This is a gray area of law. Probably strictly legally, characters' names are not sufficiently original to be protected under federal copyright law. But they may be protected as -trademarks- of the author. This is why if you look closely at a cereal box with a picture of Bugs Bunny or Darth Vader you are likely to see the words "TM and �, Warner Bros. (or Paramount)."

As a practical matter, you do not have the money to litigate fine points of copyright and trademark law against the high-priced lawyers from Bugs or from the Beatles. You will be better off in the long run by naming all your characters with 100% original names.